Saiga or AK?

OK, I'm going to go with 7.62 Russian instead of .308. The vote on the other thread is unanimous, and the reasoning makes sense to me.

Next question: Saiga sporter or straight-up AK? Advantages, disadvantages? Prices seem to be comparable. Saiga is Russian-made, while the AKs seem to be Romanian or ?. What should I watch out for? Is there really any advantage to a milled or heavy-duty (1.6 mm) receiver in an AK?

Next question: Saiga sporter or straight-up AK? Advantages, disadvantages? Prices seem to be comparable. Saiga is Russian-made, while the AKs seem to be Romanian or ?. What should I watch out for? Is there really any advantage to a milled or heavy-duty (1.6 mm) receiver in an AK?

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There is no reason to go to a milled or heavy-duty receiver. The only reason the Russians made them that way originally was they didn't have the technology for mass-producing the stamped receivers.

Saiga's "quality" and accuracy beats anything else in it's price range, but without the conversions done, you cannot use 30 round mags and you don't have a pistol grip.

What matters the most to you?

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Just FYI... I've spent alot of time researching accesories for the saiga 7.62 and have found several site's that you can purchase HI-Cap mags and Izsmash? saiga OEM pistol grips, folding stocks and many other saiga upgrades. Their prices seem to be resonable at least to what we see for the AK. I will purchasing my first saiga very soon. Not sure of the rules here for posting links but here it is.

you CAN modify an ak clip to work in the saiga 7.62 w/o messing with the rifle

im new here but just to let you guys know i purchased a saiga 7.62 thinking that it was interchangeable with ak parts.when the 30 rd. ak clip wouldnt cycle the rounds{but it DID fit in the rifle} i decided to make it work.i didnt want to install a bullet guide and possibly damage the gun, so i compared the 10 rd. that came with the rifle and the ak magazine. the only difference is there is a little u shaped lip in the front top of the ak mag where the saiga mags are flat(where the point of the bullet sticks out) ...im no gunsmith but i have access to a mig welder at work. i took a 12 mm wrench depressed it in the mag to hold down bullet feed,shoved a wet rag in there {to keep the plastic part cool} and tacked a few welds on VERY low volts (15 or 16 volts) to build that lip up until it was level and looked similar to the saiga mag then about 10 minutes with my dremel smoothing it out and cleaning up any extra weld and i tried it....i put 30 rounds in and each round cycled properly.i know this may be over kill but the saiga 30 rd mags are hard to come by, and expensive so if you are handy and desperate you can try it be careful not to burn a hole and obviosly get a metal milsurp clip not plastic
hope i can help any confused saiga owners